Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2011, $550,000)
The purpose of the Family Drug Courts Program is to build the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments to either implement new drug courts or enhance pre-existing drug courts for substance-abusing adults involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse and neglect issues. Applicants must provide services to the children of the parents in the program as well as to the parents. The program provides seed money, not long-term support. OJJDP expects successful applicants to develop and implement a sustainability plan during the grant period to continue operation of the family drug court when the grant ends. The program is authorized under 42 U.S.C. 3797u et seq.
The Travis County Family Drug Treatment Court (FDTC), established in 2007, provides judicial oversight to parents of children 0-5 involved in the child welfare system due to substance abuse/dependency. Its design is based on the 10 key components of a successful drug court and involves both judicial oversight and a continuum of services including substance abuse treatment, mental health services, and recovery supports. FDTC provides for a coordinated community strategy. The Travis County FDTC seeks to enhance its operation by creating The Children's Continuum to augment services to the children of FDTC participants. The Children's Continuum will: 1) enhance the functioning and well-being of children, 2) improve the capacity of parents to safely care for their children through improved parent/child relationships, 3) establish a continuum of screening, developmental, therapeutic and non-traditional services for children and 4) ensure that a child advocate remains a vital part of the FDTC. Progress towards achieving these goals will be measured by: the number of unique services provided to children; the number of developmental screenings and assessments completed; enhancement in the parent/child relationship through improvement in the AAPI-2 rating; notable improvement in achieving developmental milestones; and maintenance of a child advocate in the FDTC.
CA/NCF